Dear Lucas,
Fifteen years ago, our neighborhood became the laser-focus point of the world, as an attack on our city and country brought down the World Trade Center. The effects of that attack set off a chain reaction of international events, many of them as unfathomably horrible as that day fifteen years ago.
It isn’t talked about much, but the events of 9/11/2001 also left residue on our neighborhood’s psyche, on our landscape, in our lungs. Incredibly, while politicians at the national level were quick to seize on our local and national tragedy to sow fear, division and hostility, we had to fight for compensation for first responders, and some parts of that fight are still ongoing. And of course, the complicated financial and social issues that resulted from the once tallest building into the world crumbling into our streets, those issues have not gone away. There are ripple effects in transit, in safety, in health and in all facets of local governance, just as in our families and circles of friends.
The day left a deep scar in so many ways, but it also demonstrated that there are no people on Earth more cooperative or resilient than the people of Lower Manhattan. This neighborhood is beautiful and it responded beautifully. The hugs we all gave to strangers in the weeks and months following 9/11/01, the loads we carried for each other and the unquestioning help we gave to family and strangers alike, were ephemeral symbols of a complicated, beautiful love we try to live out in our diverse community every day. And the struggle that followed was hard, it was awful, but it was also true to our tradition of struggle for justice and reconciliation in this neighborhood, stretching back to the earliest days of American activism.
My thoughts and prayers are with all of us personally impacted by that
horrible day, in Lower Manhattan and around the world. Please reach out
any time to talk, or to let me know what you need. Take this day to reflect,
or do whatever you need to do. And, though we may never have satisfactory
answers, may we always grow stronger by pulling together.
- Paul